1999 Challenge Kickoff Instructional Tracks
TRACK I
This track is designed for the student who is new to the Supercomputing
Challenge and has little computing experience, or for the returning student that
wishes to review and polish basic skills.
Courses
100 Introduction to the Challenge (1 hour)
110 Teamwork (1 hour)
120 Project Development (1 hour)
125 Project Development Lab (1 hour)
130 Unix (1 hour)
140 C++ (1 hour)
145 C++ Lab (1 hour)
TRACK II
This track is designed for those students, new or returning, who have
some computer programming experience, are comfortable with Unix,
and feel ready to explore the art of
computer programming in C++.
Courses
100 Introduction to the Challenge (1 hour)
110 Teamwork (1 hour)
120 Project Development (1 hour)
125 Project Development Lab (1 hour)
200 Advanced C++ I (1 hour)
205 Advanced C++ Lab (1 hour)
210 Advanced C++ II (1 hour)
TRACK III
This track is designed for those students who are very familiar with Unix and
C++, C, or Fortran.
Courses
100 Introduction to the Challenge (1 hour)
110 Teamwork (1 hour)
120 Project Development (1 hour)
125 Project Development Lab (1 hour)
300 Parallel Programming Concepts for Scientifc Modeling (1 hour)
310 Message Passing Interface (MPI) Programming (2 hours)
Descriptions of the courses
100 Introduction to the Challenge, 1 hour
topics:
Challenge objectives, timeline, and requirements. Participants responsibilities,
security issues (AUP), how to get help, judging criteria, and awards.
110 Teamwork, 1 hour
topics: Divide & conquer,
communication, abilities/strengths of members,
cooperation, give & take, meeting deadlines. This is one area that the
students always remember about the Challenge,
how it requires teamwork!
120 Project Development, 2 hours
topics:
Project definition, how to research, mathematical models, and abstract refinement
with a scientist. How to recognize a computational problem.
125 Project Development Lab (1 hour)
130 Unix, 1 hour
topics: login, ls, cp, rm, mkdir, cd, pico, vi,
pine, logout, cc, CC, f77, bbs, .forward.
This will be a 15 minute overview of Unix followed by 35 minutes of lab
exercises.
140 C++ Programming Lecture, 1 hour
topics:
An introduction to programming
including an overview of the C++ language, comments, variables, arithmetic operations, conditional statements, loops, basic input-output, formatting, special symbols, functions, and other elements of
programming structure. Followed by a lab.
145 C++ Lab, 1 hour
topics:
Edit and compile a simple program (code given), attempt to
alter program to make it more complex.
200 Advanced C++ Programming Lecture, 1 hours
topics:
The first hour of Advanced C++ will include the material from
140 (C++ Programming Lecture), with additional topics to include:
functions (more in depth), arrays, and structures.
205 Advanced C++ Lab (1 hour)
topics:
This lab will include the assignment from 140 (C++ Lab), with an
additional assignment on arrays (and another possibly on functions).
210 Advanced C++ II (1 hour)
topics:
An in-depth analysis of pre-written C++ code implementing functions, structures, and classes.
300 Parallel Programming Concepts for Scientific Modeling, 1 hour
topics:
Introduction to building parallel scientific computer models. How to choose
a particular parallel method to fit the science as well as human effort
consideration. Emphasis is on learning the concept "information"
propagation. Knowledge of
a programing language is a prerequisite, but no previous parallel computing
required.
310 Message Passing Interface (MPI) Programming, 2 hours
topics:
Communications paradigms--blocking and non-blocking, point-to-point, and
collective communications. Emphasis will be on C/C++ language binding. Learn how to run
programs on the Pi machine. Modify existing parallel codes.
Electives
150 Introduction to Inspiration, 1 hour
topics:
Inspiration software can help clarify thinking and develop organizational skills for
your project development. It is a graphic organizer that does concept mapping, webbing,
planning, multimedia preplanning and outlining. Come get "inspired!"
160 HTML, 1 hour
topics: Show students how to develop
simple web pages and complete their HTML
abstract (30 minutes), show students how to develop a presentation using
PowerPoint (20 minutes).
170 Abstract Submission, 1 hour
topics: Computers will be available
for abstract checking and submission.
180 Java Programming, 1 hour
topics: Introduction to Java Programming.
190 How to Include Visualization in Your Project, 1 hour
Teacher Electives
T1 Introduction to Inspiration, 1 hour
topics:
Inspiration software can help clarify thinking and develop organizational skills for
your project development. It is a graphic organizer that does concept mapping, webbing,
planning, multimedia preplanning and outlining. Come get "inspired!"
T2 Using Assessment to Guide and Motivate Project Development, 2 hours
topics: Assessment of Project-based learning
, comparison of project-based vs content-based curriculum.
Overview of Rubrics (Description of rubrics, Resource sites for
rubric development).
Use of rubrics in assessing project milestones:
team self-assessment,
course evaluation,
peer Evaluation.
Example rubrics for computational science project milestones.
Example application of assessment to actual student project.
T3 Introduction to Mathematical Modeling, 2 hours
topics: This session will provide participants with a general understanding of what
a mathematical model is, how mathematical models are derived, and the key
role that mathematical modeling plays in computational science. Some simple
examples of traffic flow and population dynamics will be presented.